What a beautiful spring this year! Wow! The blossoms on the pear, apple, cherry and plum trees around the city. How does your garden look these days? Probably has a few little weeds here and there and now is the time to grab those sucker around the throat and take them out. Weeding is an art; if you can, try removing them without gloves: take the base of the plant in your hand and assess the grip of the soil on the roots. Then, an easy, slow pull out of the earth should remove the root ball and prevent the weed from growing back. Whereas a quick yank merely encourages growth by essentially pruning the little rascal.
It is also time to amend your soil and incorporate fertilizer into the soil. Be specific; use the correct type of fertilizer, ie alkaline for things such as roses, to an acid fertilizer for ferns and rhodendron.
It is also a time to add some color, summer flowering perenials and annuals are in nurseries now.
In bloom in April:
Iceland poppy, sweet alysum and pansy, calla and bearded irs (one of my faves), cineraria, candytuft, gazania, primorse and violet.
Azalea, camelia and rhododendron. Acacia trees, various fruit trees, hawthorne and tulip trees.
Wooly blue curls, amazing mountain spirea and shockingly beautifl ceanothus.
Be sure to hit the nurseries while the selection is at its peak! Buy from local nurseries to be sure plants are acclimated to your particular climate.
Most importantly, take time to bond with your garden; try hand watering instead of a drip system once in a while, bend over and smell the various flowers, gently prune the spent one and touch the buds to encourage a sense of contact and love.
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